LurkerDan

Wiki lists CJ as the winner against Kuniko. Which is as it should be; he's been cooking and winning while she is sitting on her ass. I liked her and wished she lasted longer, but he deserved to beat her. And he will beat Josie.

LurkerDan

he certainly hasn't been impressive, and is easily the poorest performer of those remaining. But he has 3 lows and two highs, with a QF win, so not horrendous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Che...stant_Progress

yeek

Yeah, I think most ppl kept voting for Kuniko bc they felt she was eliminated unjustly. But you're right, CJ deserved it just for the sheer amount of sudden death wins and the fact he's always been funny and well liked. In the end I would have been happy with either of them.

starman9000

Glad Stefan is gone, but that was a rather forgettable episode. Feel sort of bad like I'm not giving this a fair shake any more, but I've been fast forwarding more and more this season.

davidh777

I liked seeing Brooke come back, though, and some of those lousy surf-n-turf dishes.

Last week they had to bring in ringer judges, and now they've gone to Alaska. I guess they didn't have enough going in Seattle to last a full season.

wirefan

^ I thought they almost always go to a new location when there are either 4 or 5 contestants left. (I could be completely wrong on that though)

Double_Oh_7

^ No, you're not. They hardly ever end the season in the location it began.

davidh777

Actually, I think you're right on that one.

starman9000

Didn't have a problem with Lizzie, but she was pretty much forgettable. Hopefully Sheldon and Brooke will face off for it all.

davidh777

Yeah, Lizzie was middle of the road and just made the final four because someone was always worse. Bacon Boy has also been around too long. I knew the bacon flavor was going to kill the crab.

davidh777

Bye bye, bacon/breakfast boy

I've been rooting for Brooke ever since Kristen left. I finally sought out Last Chance Kitchen (what a horrendous web experience--I tried to watch it through two different console apps and two laptops without success; only my desktop could manage it), and

LurkerDan

Possibly the best "final 3" since season 6. and all likeable people. too bad one had to go, but I think the best 2 chefs are the 2 that are left. Happy with either winning.

BDB

Kristen did well - but I think not having watched any of the last chance stuff that it was expected she would.

wirefan

I like the idea of them having to do a service and with Tom expediting to keep them honest they simply couldn't just make sure they got the judges plates right and not worry as much about the others.

Once they got rid of Josie (who obviously should have been gone way earlier) the season was pretty good.

Noonan

I thought the premise of the finale was horrible. You didn't get to see the cooking or them planning any of the dishes. And it wasn't a surprise who was going to win when they served the 4th course with only 5 min left in the show.

kaisha no saru

Agreed. I also realized she won since they kept showing the former winner table and the one chef (I think Paul) was hooting and hollering for the winner...the first scene in the show when they did the contestant intro's also had the camera go right to him and his enthusiastic support of Kristin along with a shot of her family's table...so seemed obvious he was on team K.

Last night confirmed that Padma gets a definite vote - which she shouldn't, she's should be the host only not a judge (she can give her feedback but her voting just isn't cool). And apparently no reunion show this year...were they worried about Josie getting into fisticuffs with...everybody? I'll never forgive Bravo for making me watch that horrible "what happens drunk" show to find out who was the fan favorite. What is up with the hosts eyes? He's either cross-eyed or has a lazy eye or something and it was creeping me out.

DRG

Yeah I hated it as well. First, the whole live show setup made it feel more like a subpar Iron Chef ripoff than Top Chef. Second, they should have kept the votes unknown until the end and just made them go through all 5 rounds. That 'last 5 minute' reveal was especially bad because they artificially stretched it out with fake reality show pauses... maybe a sloppy attempt to fool people into thinking they might actually have another round of food.

Noonan

I've always watched TC because they bring in some amazing chefs and let us watch them create and execute dishes most of us would never think of. The finale is usually the time when they bring out the big guns and show off some crazy skills. This was all about the show and nothing about the chefs and the food they make.

LurkerDan

Agreed that this finale was lacking. Couldn't they give us 5 minutes to show how they picked sous chefs? couldn't they have thought how they were giving away the winner before she was announced?

FWIW, Tom tweeted that he hated the format too, and they likely won't do it again.

davidh777

Yeah, the format was lame, and it seemed obviously manufactured to split votes until, as others noted, there was only five minutes left. And I checked Bravo's schedule for the reunion show only to find nothing.

Good for Kristen, but I'd gotten more attached to Brooke over the last couple months (perhaps because I only watched the final Last Chance Kitchen). That whole thing seemed like a set-up as well: Boot the dominant contestant with a complete fake-out "you're safe" line, then have one person judge the whole LKC. Not hard to manufacture drama there.

LurkerDan

I don't believe that LCK was a set-up. They have occasionally done fake outs before, and they have also made it clear before that if you're willing to fall on your sword, as Kristen was, they won't look beyond it. They will send you home. As for the judging on LCK, certainly none of us know. But it was so clear how great of a chef Kristen was that it's not hugely surprising that she won a few in a row, is it? I'm not privy to inside info, but having watched this show for all 10 seasons, read the blogs on Bravo (from Tom, Gail, et al), I just don't see Tom agreeing to a "fix is in".

davidh777

No, it's not surprising that Kristen would win rounds in LCK since she had been regularly winning challenges on the main show against the same or better competition. And while I've only watched about four TC seasons, I know that they can bounce someone after a bad week even when that person is clearly a stronger competitor than people who realistically have no shot at winning (which never makes sense to me). But it (the boot more so than the LCK comeback) still smelled like manufactured drama to me. (I know, "On a reality TV show? I'm shocked, just shocked!") As you say, we'll never really know.

Double_Oh_7

I don't think Tom should be the LCK judge. He is also an exec-producer on the show, and thus has an interest in keeping someone that will create the most drama, suspense, etc. It should be the other booted chef'testants that choose the winner.

LurkerDan

It's not just that they'll boot someone strong for one bad week. It's that they will boot you for falling on the sword. If you say to them "I'm responsible, it was my fault", they don't usually look beyond that (especially because they don't know what we know, as they haven't seen the behind the scenes stuff yet). Kristen said it was her fault, she admitted to saucing the plate, she admitted to making the decision to not use gelatin, she admitted to not testing the foamer beforehand, and she refused to tell them that all of those decisions were made because Josie was insubordinate and wouldn't do what she said she would do in the time she said she would do it. Kristen wouldn't tell them that every single decision she made that they questioned was made because of Josie's crappy performance. So, because she said she made all those bad decisions and was responsible, they sent her home even though they clearly knew something else was going on.

LurkerDan

I trust that he tries to pick the best dish, but I can see how it would be hard to do that without considering all the other stuff. I could see how, for ex, in Kristen v Josie, if it were close he'd subconsciously pick Kristen. I don't think he cares about the drama and suspense at all. If he's biased, I think he'd be biased towards picking the better chef, as opposed to the one who has the better tasting dish in front of him. That may have benefited CJ and Kristen.